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Manufacturing INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › 56 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2017 lege and Asnuntuck Community College, Hernandez says. Other Connecticut manufacturers are investing in their home-grown work- forces as well. In January, General Dynamics Electric Boat announced plans to hire 1,500 workers in Connecticut in 2017, a move that will cre- ate more than 800 new jobs aer accounting for attrition. e Groton-based submarine manufacturer, which also plans to add work- ers to its operations in Rhode Island, is being bolstered by strong military spending on the United State submarine program. At the company's annual outlook meeting in Groton in January, Electric Boat President Jeffrey Geiger said: "All in all, it's a very positive picture for the long-term health of our business and employment prospects for the region." Statford-based Sikorsky also is seeing its business grow. In January 2017, the aerospace company announced it won a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense in which the manufacturer is developing systems intel- ligence to help both manned and un-manned aircra fly more safely and reliably. Under the contract, the company, which is a division of Maryland-based Lockheed Martin, is developing an Aircrew Labor In- Cockpit Automation System for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. "Our autonomy capabilities will help pilots in high-workload and degraded visual environments, ultimately increasing safety and efficiency," Mark Miller, vice president of Sikorsky Engineering and Technology, said in a statement when the contract was announced. As Sikorsky continues to land new contracts, Con- necticut stands to benefit. Last fall, the state and Lockheed Martin reached an agreement to keep Sikorsky's world- wide headquarters in Stratford through at least 2032. ere had been some concern when Lockheed Martin acquired the company from Hartford-based United Technolo- gies Corp. (Pratt & Whitney's parent company) in late 2015 that it would move Sikorsky elsewhere. But under the pact the company agreed to keep its 8,000 workers in Connecticut and add jobs in the state, as well as nearly double its spending of $350 million annually among in-state suppliers. Trickle-down effects e growth of manufacturing jobs has a positive ripple effect throughout the state's economy. For every manufacturing job, another 1.5 jobs are created elsewhere in the economy — in sectors like trade, business and professional services, and oth- Employees work on the line of a Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine plant. An Airbus A320neo aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney's PurePower PW1100G-JM engines, recently visited Connecticut's Bradley International Airport. > Continued from page 53 PHOTO/PRATT & WHITNEY PHOTO/PRATT & WHITNEY ' This is a very exciting time at Pratt & Whitney as we continue to transform aviation across our portfolio of engines. ' — Ray HeRnandez, spokesman, pRatt & WHitney Continued on page 58 >